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Monologues: Friend or Foe?

I know you’re thinking about it. You’re a Studio applicant,
and you’ve received an audition for Wolf Trap. And you scan the audition
requirements and see that there’s a required contemporary monologue.

“Why in heavens name do they make us memorize monologues?”
you think, knowing that memorizing text without a tune is so much more
difficult than memorizing arias and song.

We all know that we’re not auditioning you as a straight
actor. So what could our motive be, and how can you hack the situation to your
advantage? Here’s the rationale, and what we’re really looking for from your
monologue. Demystified!

1.We’re trying to get to know you. Your 1st
selection in an audition is fraught with all kinds of noise: stress from
getting to the site, nerves from the whole audition process; technical issues
and dramatic issues and musical issues. Most folks surf two out of the last
three items pretty well, but the dramatic piece is usually the part thatis
subsumed by technical and musical concerns. (Rightly so; please concentrate on
singing beautifully and in tune!) So, with a monologue, we get to explore the
dramatic piece of the pie.

2.We want to hear you express yourself in
contemporary language. This is why monologues from Chekhov and Wilde –
while wonderful pieces – are not our preference. I don’t want to hear you
imitate a Downton accent, I want to see you wrestle with your own language, and
more importantly to really communicate with me. The accents and affectations
just make it more difficult to learn who you
are. So sit down with your favorite movie or TV show and memorize a favorite
character’s speech – it’ll be more fun for you, and I promise we’ll enjoy it
more than Mabel lamenting Tommy’s proposal styles.

3.We want to learn as much as we can about
you. Let’sbe frank: we see you
for a song, maybe two if time allows. The monologue allows us to see your body
language, your personal aesthetic; it gives us a different window into who you
are as an artist and performer.

4.I want to see how your artistry transcends
genres. Play around in another genre. You are an artist; I want to see as
many of your artistic faces as time allows.

We’ve been lucky so far: some wonderful monologues have come
through the doors here in New York. My notes are incomplete, but here are some
of my favorites:

· Luisa from The Fantasticks, only because its much harder to do than you
think. And the whole “I love to taste my tears” thing always comes across as
indulgent and soporific.

·Chekhov, Dostoyevsky. They’re AWESOME. But let’s
refer to the Wilde rule: 100 years since death = not the kind of language we’re
looking for. I’m looking for something less removed from your own experience.